Archive for May, 2007

I’ve been driving solidly for about 9 months now. In order to renew a license here in Ireland, you must first apply for a test. My license is due to expire in July, so i applied for a test way back in January.

Today i got a letter stating that i’ll have my test on Tuesday May 29th at 11.50am. Quite a nice time i think.. a tuesday is fairly quiet in town, and i’ll just miss the lunch hour from 1-2pm, so i’m pretty pleased with that time. It also gives me a chance to take last ditch lessons on the morning of the test

Anyway, i’m very confident i’ll pass first time. Nothing phases me in driving and i’ve yet to have a crash or dent in the car mind you, i have had some close calls, but none down to my driving.. the overall standard of Irish Driving is woeful, and that’s down to our older drivers and license system which allows anyone to hop in a car and drive anywhere – even if you’ve never driven a car in your life. Our older drivers were simply ‘given’ licenses back in 70′s So i’ve no doubt all the bad habits and lack of knowledge have been passed on down generations.

Things are improving though, and as far as i know, Ireland will have to comply with EU regulations by 2010 which will mean a much tougher testing system and higher standards. Mind you, 50% of tests are failed every day in this country, so you can imagine what that figure will be like once the test becomes harder

Reverse around a corner, start on a hill, do a 3-point turn.. and that’s pretty much it. The rest is just cruising along through town so the examiner can check you on your signals, mirrors, anticipation and all that common sense stuff.

The only reason i’ll fail is for speeding or not having hands correctly placed on the wheel at all times. But for 45 minutes, i think i’ll manage. It’s a mental challenge now, the practical side of things isn’t an issue for me thankfully.

So i’ve worked out my tactics for the test already. I’ve tested them out and my driving improves a lot… I’ll simply pretend i’m driving with a bomb under the car. Go over 30 miles/hr and i kill myself. Don’t use the handbrake on hills / at traffic lights, and i kill myself. Let my hands slip down on the steering wheel, and i kill myself.

So come the driving test, that’s what will be going on in my head. Stupid – but it works.

One of my jobs this week was to re-order an n95.

So that’s exactly what i’ve done. Not through an online retailer though, through a guy who knows a guy

So i should get one for €625 plus €15 delivery as i won’t be able to go to Dublin to meet up and collect it in person. (Well i could, but i couldn’t be bothered.. it would mean going up on the bus/wasting a day shopping or something and thus cancelling out any savings i made )

Sim free, unlocked of course. I’m told he’ll have them Tuesday (7days from now) at the latest so fingers crossed i’ll be reviewing an n95 next week. If i do get one for that price, an it arrives intact, i’ll be well chuffed. A saving of about €60.

I can’t tell you how much i’m looking forward to this phone!

April. Well the first thing that stands out is the PR update. In general, i’m reasonably pleased. Apart from this blog, there were no nasty surprises and a few pleasant ones.

On the traffic side of things, there were some problems.. only now have i finally got round to moving JPEGr, so i expect it to come back to life now.. for the past 2 months or so, it’s been hit and miss and i’ve had server problems.

mygadgetinfo.com was hit with a copyright infringement case, so i had to pull all content from it. It didn’t effect traffic, but it did effect CTR on ads and i now have no images present at all.

Moving onto the cash.. as usual i’ll break it down..

Adsense: $46.13

Text-link-ads: $17.88

Auction Ads: $1.24

Domain Refunds: $0.27

Total: $65.52

Just shy of last month’s $69. February was my best ever month at $73

The positives i can take from April is that i’ve spread my earnings away from adsense. I’ve started to join more affiliate networks and now have a very respectable 28 Agloco Network.

Can i top April’s earnings? Of course I can. I’m hoping JPEGr will flourish in May, now that it’s in TLA and is back to it’s former glory server wise. If i can raise CTR slightly on Adsense, i’ll be happy. It dropped about 0.5% this month on last month. Traffic remained virtually the same.